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The Barbarians of Happy Valley hosted the Winchester Cannons in the league opening fall match. Played at Autumn Meadow Field in Halfmoon, the Baba’s feature over 30 players ready to boot up.

The A side game opened up with some tentative movement, as both teams shook off the rust from the summer. With 5 min in, the Baba backline distributed after a winning ruck, got the ball into the hands of centre Tony Monaco who then set the ball down for a try, barely missing duplicating last year’s effort of putting the ball down past the try zone (the posts were in the rear of the try zone). Patrick converted, 7-0 Baba’s. One of the Winchester back line commented that play would not happen again, but alas, about 5 min later, Tony scored again on a similar move and put the ball down for a try, with a conversion by Patrick, now 14-0 Baba’s.

Hard tackling and decent ball distribution kept the Baba’s in control for the remainder of the half. While the set play in the scrums and lineout’s were shaky, our loose play controlled the game and Sean Riggle set the ball down for another try, converted by Pat, now we are up 21-0. After half, Winchester worked the ball down and scored two unanswered try’s which they failed to convert, so it was not 21-10. Some key substitutions were made, with Flude going off with a really bad itch in his beard, and the Baba’s continued controlling the ball, with Rugby Rob scoring another try, which he missed the conversion, and the Baba’s up 26-0. On the scoring, the Winchester winger did something, presumably not something too nice, to a Baba and the referee awarded a penalty kick in front of the posts, Patrick converted and we are now up 29-10. A few minutes late, the scrum scored on a driving maul and put the ball down for another try, with no conversion made, which ended up being the final score, 34-10 Barbarians.

The B game featured some old and new hands, with a couple of motley’s filling in. The game was very fluid, with several long runs by a PSU player, a nice try by Wes Brogden, and a lot of back and forth by both sides. Austin played a good game at scrumhalf, only getting into one fight, and getting yelled at by the referee only once. At the end of the game a bit of a brouhaha broke out, and the game was called with about a minute to go. A bit of an argument from a Winchester player and the referee ensued (who shall remain nameless) which entertained the crowd.

Final score 25-25 tie between Winchester and Happy Valley

Men of the Match for the A side was Tony Monaco and Wes Brogden for the B Side

Barbarisms…thanks to Flude and Ethan for setting up the field. Welcome to Kiwi Matt and Jon Jon from Australia in their first game in the US. Patrick was quite impressed and somewhat baffled when his fellow internationals failed to go to the drink up. Freddy B, Grant and Riggle’s buddy all played their first 15’s game. Thanks to Freddy B for hosting the social, and DF for doing a fine job of cooking. Thanks the nameless referee for the B game, he did pretty well until the last minute.

No game this Labor Day weekend, but we are working on a scrimmage for Sept 12. Next League game is v. Quantico on September 19 at home.